Alien Theory: The Decline of Materialism in the Name of Matter

by Ray Brassier

Genres: Philosophy

PhD Thesis

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Raymond Brassier (born 1965) is a British philosopher. He is a member of the philosophy faculty at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, known for his work in philosophical realism. He was formerly Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University, London, England.

Brassier is the author of Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction and the translator of Alain Badiou's Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism and Theoretical Writings and Quentin Meillassoux's After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. He first attained prominence as a leading authority on the works of François Laruelle.

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to write a review of this but it very quickly reached one and a half pages. But this is really great writing I can totally recommend it. Brassier absolutely avoids lazy generalizations, every page is working and the argument is always under development. If you want to get more of a sense of Laruelle it is definitely worth a read. Most impressive is that Brassier in one text covers thinkers as different as Quine and Deleuze, to Churchland and Henry all with equal capability and insight. He doesn't appear to be a partisan philosopher but is equally as willing to draw from any school in order to develop the argument, although the essential framework is non-philoosphical. This really goes to the heart of the problems of current philosophy and not in any fadish manner. It is a seriously impressive 'first effort'.

[homoness · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always with Brassier, things can get a bit over-complicated and aggressive, but it's nevertheless an impressive PhD thesis.